


Shattered Skull

by Killerangelgirl



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: My First Fanfic, skull is my poor little baby, skull's past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-08-07 09:27:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7709776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Killerangelgirl/pseuds/Killerangelgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Have the Arcobaleno ever actually known Skull? </p><p>They find out that they, in fact, don't when Skull falls apart one day, making them go on a journey not only find out where Skull went, but exactly who Skull used to be.</p><p>rewritten 11/8/16</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... warnings and stuff. Suicide attempts, self-hate, and child experimentations.
> 
> I'm rewriting this story (when i should be doing summer AP homework oops) because the story didn't flow well. some people ended up geting confused at some things so I'm attempting to clear it up. 
> 
> I don't know how long it will be until I rewrite the next chapters. It could be today, tomorrow, or in a week. It depends on how much I feel like procrastinating.

When Skull first received to an invitation to a meeting of the seven strongest, he was surprised. Originally, he did not plan on going, but he had nothing better to do so he decided to go. When the six (or seven- he saw the blond guy stalking the blue haired lady) other of the strongest saw him with his makeup and piercings, they immediately classified him as weak. Everybody, except Luce, did not give Skull any chance to prove himself. Was it because he was the youngest out of all of them? Or because he wasn't a part of the mafia?

Luce was the only one who realized he wasn't weak. It helped that she just seemed to _know_ things. Everybody else should have known better than to immediate call him weak though. If he was actually weak, why would he get an invitation then? Those kinds of mistakes could get people killed.

Meeting the others pulled him out of a state of apathy. At first he found it amusing that he was surrounded by some of the strongest and most intelligent people in the world, yet none of them saw through the mask he wore. He found it amusing that not a single one of them noticed the countless scars carefully hidden under his make-up and jumpsuit, or the countless scars on his heart. Or _that he wasn't weak_. He found it somewhat amusing that the greatest hitman in the world thought of him as a lackey. After about two weeks of this treatment, it stopped being amusing and Skull felt his apathy return and carefully hid it. Since the others never bothered to actually get to _know_ Skull, he decided he would not attempt to change their opinions of him. They weren't worth it.

When they first became Arcobaleno, Skull was overjoyed, but managed to hide his joy behind countless complaints. It wouldn't do to have the other Arcobaleno to know that he was actually happy with the curse.

Maybe the curse of the Arcobaleno would cancel out his other curse, his own personal hell?

It didn't.

After all, as his nickname implies, he _is_ the man the grim reaper hates.

After he found out the Arcobaleno curse did not help him, he was angry. His now infant body could not do anything. He was too small to do any of his stunts, losing his main source of income. He was too small to do _anything_ , plus people took him even less seriously than before.

One of the only bright sides that Skull could find to the cure was the pets. He received an octopus that he immediately fell in love with and promptly named Oodako.

The other bright side that Skull found was that Verde, in one of his rare moments of kindness, created an entirely new motorcycle that fit his new body size. It was even better than his old bike!  
Skull had a feeling that maybe Luce ordered him to create the bike, but he didn't care. Receiving the bike helped him decide that maybe the others weren't so bad.

He only stuck around the other Arcobaleno so long over the years because he actually somewhat liked them, despite the fact that they constantly teased him. He couldn't bring himself to show them his real self the rare moments that his apathy left him, Skull actually found himself amused over their antics.

He eventually decided to join a famiglia, the Carcassa, and somehow managed to take over the family, which was something very few people knew. He eventually got the great idea to try and take over Mafia Land. Despite the fact that they never succeeded in taking over Mafia Land, it became one of the few things Skull found amusing.

When Skull figured out he was actually _sad_ over Luce's death, he decided he was getting too close to the others and pulled away from them.

Years after they were cursed to be the Arcobaleno, Tsuna figured out how to break the Arcobaleno curse. Everybody was so happy to finally be free from the curse, yet the fact that they were still infants put a damper on things. Colonello was perhaps the most disappointed since the woman he loved, Lal, happened to be the only one of them to receive her adult body back.

Skull allowed a small hope to break through his apathy. He thought that maybe his original curse would finally be broken along with the Arcobaleno curse.

Over the next week, Skull made various preparations before he checked to see if his original curse was gone.

A few days before he was going to see if his curse was gone, Verde sent out a group text to all the ex-Arcobaleno (nobody has yet figured out how he managed to always find out their numbers since most of them were using untraceable disposable phones that they changed every few weeks). The only thing the text read was, 'Within the next 24-48 hours expect rapid body growth as our bodies return to their original forms.'

Of course that caused a massive flurry of text to be sent by everybody. Skull responded with a text,  
keeping up his mask, saying, 'YAY! The great Skull-sama will return to his original handsome self!' and was promptly booted from the group chat by Verde.

He decided to wait until he got his original body back before seeing if the curse was gone.

Later that day, Fon sent him a text saying that there was going to be a meeting on the mountaintop where they were cursed in three days.

Two days later the now seventeen-year old Skull checked into a hotel near the mountain and snuck Oodako into the room. Making sure to lock the door behind him, Skull decided he couldn't wait any longer.

He sat in the middle of the room and gave one last smile to Oodako. A loud bang was heard before everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I rewrote this chapter, it turned out twice as long. I hope it's better than it was before.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> stuff hits the fan fast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some (or most) of the characters will probably be OCC because this is my first time attempting to write a Katekyo Hitman Reborn fic, and I don’t think im that great at the Arcobaleno characters. I’m also very bad at dialogue.
> 
> In this story, R is not Reborn, just so you know.
> 
> rewritten chapter posted 11/8/16

_Two boys, one with purple hair and one with black hair, huddle together in the corner of a small, once white cell._

_"Hey S?" the black haired boy began, addressing the other boy._

_"Yes R?" the purple haired boy responded._

_"Do you think that we will survive?"_

_"I'll do whatever I can to protect you, R." the purple haired boy ruffled the other boy's black hair._

_"That wasn't what I asked," pouted R._

_S was just about to respond when the jail cell opened and a crazed looking man in a white lab coat came in. "Subject R come with me." The man said, approaching the two boys._

_S quickly stood up and immediately started begging, "No! Take me instead! Please!" and grabbed onto the man's coat._

_The man huffed and threw S toward the wall. "You'll get your chance after Subject R."_

_The man grabbed R and dragged him out of the room leaving S curled up against the wall, crying._

_After what seemed like hours, the man returned, and this time with his lab coat covered in blood. "Your turn, Subject S." the man said, advancing toward S._

_S frantically looked for a way to possibly escape, but found none. The man grabbed S and dragged him out of the room and down the hall past various people.. The man stopped at an ominous looking metal door and opened it, shoving S inside. The first thing S noticed was the small, still body that laid on one of the operating tables._

_S could feel himself start to panic even more as he realized the still body is R, the boy he had just promised to protect. "What did you do to R!" he screamed at the blood covered man, not able to take his eyes off the prone figure of R._

_The blood covered man just giggled as he strapped S onto the operating table next to the body. "He was a failure, but I have a feeling you will be a success, Subject S."_

_S tore his eyes away from R and watched as the man crossed the room to gather something that he could not see. When the man turned around, S could see what he is holding. A scalpel. The man headed back towards S with a crazed look in his eyes. "I will make you immortal. Be happy boy."_

_The only thing that could be heard was the young boy's screams, abruptly cut off by a flash of purple flames._

* * *

 

Skull woke up from his spot on the floor, sweating and gasping for breath. He gripped his head as a headache pounded in his head. Oodako was looking at him worriedly from across the room, and Skull gave the octopus a small, sad smile before pulling himself up. Ignoring the blood on the floor, he headed towards the bathroom.

After splashing his face with water, Skull examined his reflection in the mirror. His eyes traced over the bags under his eyes, over every scar on his face. He tilted his head to the side to examine his newest wound, and felt something inside him break. Why? Whywhywhywhywhywhy- Skull took a deep breaths to try and stop the all too often panic attack he can feel starting, and after thirty minutes the panic attack receded.

Looking up at the clock, Skull noticed that it was almost time for the Arcobaleno meeting. He immediately brushed off how late it was. It didn't matter if he was late. None of them expected him to be on time anyways. Making a quick decision, Skull decided to take a shower to wash off the blood.

After the somewhat soothing shower, Skull once again examined the now half-healed wound. He winced once he realized he won't be able to hide it from the others. Oodako, somehow knowing Skull's predicament, chose this moment to enter the bathroom. The octopus was wearing Skull's helmet on his head and looked at Skull as if saying "Wear this to cover it." Skull gave Oodako a grateful smile and took the helmet, setting it next to the sink

Turning away, Skull absentmindedly put on put on his make-up, covering up his various scars. He allowed his mind to wonder. He couldn't do this today, he knows he won't be able to keep up his persona today. He just isn't in the mood.

But he knows he can't miss it. The others wouldn't allow him to miss the meeting.

Finished with his make-up, Skull grabbed the helmet and walked out of the bathroom, absentmindedly stepping over the pool of blood and walking over to his suitcase. He grabbed out a jumpsuit- he had his jumpsuits custom made so he could hide his various and numerous scars easier- not covered in blood and put it on. He put on a huge (fake _fake_ ** _fake_** ) smile as he put on his persona, his mask, and left.

* * *

 

The first thing Skull saw when he arrived at the meeting spot was a now fully grown Colonello loudly attempting to score a date with Lal.

Once he stepped into the clearing, Skull was greeted with a foot kicking him down and a voice saying, "You're late, lackey."

"For every second you were late you owe me a dollar."

Skull mentally pulled strengthened his persona before he stood up. Pointing at Reborn, Skull screamed, "How dare you kick the great Skull-sama!"

Skull was rewarded with eye rolls from everybody, and two guns pointed at him courtesy of Reborn and Colonello. The sight of the guns caused something in him to crack even more.

Fon, with a somewhat amused glint in his eye, tried to calm everybody down. "Now that everybody is here, we can start the meeting."

With those words everybody stopped what they were doing and examined each other. Skull noticed that everybody looked exactly the same as they did before they were cursed to be infants.

Verde was the one who broke the silence, "Is anybody feeling any negative effects from the sudden growth? Has anybody noticed anything different about your bodies?" These questions started a conversation between the ex-Arcobaleno. Skull tried to get involved in the conversation to try and keep his dark thoughts at bay, but was ignored by the others. The thoughts overtook his mind.

He felt like he couldn't keep up his farce any longer.

Skull was done. Just done with everything: the Arcobaleno, the mafia, people, _life_. He just wanted it all to end. To stop. He is a cloud. Clouds aren't meant to be chained, and he has been chained for way too long. Chained to the Arcobaleno curse, chained to the name Skull, chained to _life_. He just wants to be free. He just wanted to die. Skull felt whatever was in him shatter.

So lost in his thoughts, Skull didn't notice when the people around him fell silent, didn't notice the concerned look Fon sent him. He did notice when a ten-ton Leon hammer hit his helmet, knocking him to the ground and breaking his helmet.

Reborn glared at Skull. "Pay attention, lack…" his voice trailed off when the helmet split in half and revealed the gruesome wound on Skull's head. Skull's head was facing toward the ground so he didn't notice the concerned glances the others were sending each other.

Lal was the first one to break the awkward silence, "Skull, what happened?

Skull muttered something incomprehensible, still face first on the ground the ground.

"Speak up, kora."

Skull pulled himself off the ground, glaring at each . The utterly hopeless and dead look, lying underneath the fury, in his eyes shocked everybody, but being professionals, they quickly hid their shock.

"I said 'I got into an accident during a stunt,'" Skull looked into each of their eyes with the dead look in his eyes. "Are we done here? I'm leaving."

Skull turned around and began walking down the mountain, only to be stopped by a hand o his arm. Skull turned around slightly, seeing Fon.

"Skull…"

Skull quickly whirled around, shaking the hand off his arm, and glared at everybody. "What do you want from me? You guys are trying to act concerned now, but you don't care about me." Skull's whole body was shaking at the pure amount of unbottled emotions he's feeling( _rage, loneliness, sadness, fear, grief_ ). Gone was the happy-go-lucky Skull everybody knew. All that is left is just a broken boy.

Skull took a deep breath before continuing. "You guys don't even know anything about me or who i am. You never took the chance to get to know me. What do you guys even know about me?"

Fon could no longer hide his shock at Skull's sudden rant. "Wha-"

Skull cut him off, "I'll tell you what you know; nothing. You guys know nothing about me. As soon as you guys saw me, you all classified me as weak. You know nothing what I have been through. You never got to know me. You don't know me. You nev-" Skull cut himself off and took another deep breath in a futile attempt to calm himself. "Goodbye." Skull didn't even bother giving them one last look before spinning around and running away, ignoring the shocked look on all of the ex-Arcobalenos' faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that escalated quickly. 
> 
> The only reason I updated this so quickly was because I had this part all written out, just not typed. This is basically all I have written so far and I will try to write more of it tomorrow (or today considering it’s like 2 am). Thank you for reading this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if anybody has any questions about what's going on, let me know. i will try to answer them soon. Thank you for reading this story.
> 
> Rewrite posted 11/8/16

The remaining ex-Arcobaleno could only watch as the usually happy Skull ran away, fuming, in concern. Despite how they originally felt about him (stupid, annoying, useless,loud), Skull had actually grown on them over the years.

Reborn, the first one to snap out of his shock, quickly ran after to Skull, the others following close behind. But Skull was long gone.

They didn't know Skull could _move_ that fast.

They all knew what an injury of one of Skull's motorcycles accidents looked like, and that wound on his dead was _definitely_ not one. ** _It was a bullet wound_**.

When they find Skull, they are going to make him tell them who hurt them. Then **destroy** the person who **dared** to harm the youngest.

They split up and frantically checked everywhere in the nearby town.

They all met up outside of Skull's hotel door. Staring at each other for a few a minutes, they communicated in a way that people stuck together only could. They silently opened the door and simply stared at the sheer wreckage of what was once a neat hotel room.

Their eyes were immediately drawn to what was in the center of the wreckage; a gun and a half-dried puddle of blood.

Lal stepped into the room, stepped around the debris, and snatched the gun. Examining the clip, she saw that a single bullet was missing. The others stepped into the room after her, and shut the door.

Lal answered the unspoken question, "One's missing."

The room heated up at the Arcobalenos' anger and concern for their youngest.

**Who dared do this to their Cloud.**

Verde examined the blood and realized that the puddle of blood could't have been more than a twelve hours old.

A crash sounded from the adjacent room, and all the ex-Arcobaleno were instantly on guard. Mammon, the nearest to the door, with flames ready to attack, opened the door. See what's inside, they allowed their flames to dissipate. Sensing this, the others somewhat relaxed.

"What is it, Viper?" Verde inquired.

Mammon pushed open the door, allowing the others to see an octopus destroying a bathroom, as if sensing its masters emotions. They all knew that it was Skull's octopus.

The octopus, sensing intruders, was instantly on guard, and prepared to attack the intruders. When it saw who it was, the octopus visibly untensed and stared.

After a short staring contest, Fon stepped forward and gently asked the octopus, "Do you know happened to Skull?"

The octopus seemed to nod before slipping out of the bathroom. It crawled onto the destroyed bed and faced the humans. Holding up a tentacle, he mimicked a gun shooting him in the head.

"Do you know who shot Skull?" Reborn asked.

Oodako nodded again. He made wild gestures, but none of the strongest humans could understand him. Realizing this, Oodako looked at Leon, as if pleading with him. Leon gave a short nod before transforming into an imitation of Skull's helmet.

THe Arcobaleno were confused.

Horror briefly flashed across Collonello's face as he was hit with a realization. "Skull..Skull did this to himself?"

Oodako nodded.

"Why?" Lal whispered in horror.

The octopus hesitated for a moment before determination flashed through his eyes as he slipped of the ruin of the bed and headed toward a suitcase. They watched as the octopus went through the luggage and pulled out... a diary? and handed it Reborn.

They all huddled around Reborn as he flipped through the diary.

The beginning of the diary had somewhat neat writing, but as the diary continued on, the words got messier and messier, harder to read. Skimming through the first few entries, it was quickly determined that those weren't important.

Reaching the last few pages, Reborn forced himself to read the messy scrawl and froze.

_Why am i still alive?_

He quickly scanned the remaining pages.

_Why did he have to die_

_Whywhywhywhywhywhy_

_It's all my fault_

_Why are they gone_

_Itsallmyfaultitsallmyfaultitsallmyfault_

_I can't stand these chains_

_Get these chains off of me_

Everybody in the room felt their hearts drop at the last words.

_I deserve to die_

_I don't deserve to live_

_I want to die_

The Arcobaleno, who stopped hiding their horror at the situation when the door first opened, all shared one thought.

'We don't know anything about Skull. Just who is he?'

* * *

 

Skull has never known his real name, his real family, his _true self_.

Before he became Skull, he constantly changed his name, each name never lasting more than six months. It was his way of running, his way of hiding, his way of keeping everybody **safe**. Once Skull thought that it was probably his flames keeping him moving, trying to avoid Skull getting shackled into one place again.

He chose to become Skull two months before he became an Arcobaleno.

Before he was Skull, he was a person named Stefano, who happened to be a somewhat famous hitman nicknamed 'Unkillable'. (He was actually a pretty strong hitman. If he had actually tried during his battle with Hibari, he could have easily defeated him.) It was during this time that he discovered the joy of stunt work. It broke him out of his shell of apathy, and, even for a little while, Skull could feel something again.

Before he was Stefano, he was Sergio. Before that, Silvester. He forgot most of the names he used. He was never anybody for more than 6 months before he was Skull. He made sure no to ever get close to anybody so that they wouldn't recognize him when he became somebody else.

Before he was any of these people, though, he was a little boy simply called S, a weak boy who could only watch in fear as his friends were dragged away one by one by _them_. S couldn't protect anybody. _**He was weak**_.

After what they did to Skull, he became stronger. _But it was too late_. The only person in the world who had cared about him was already dead. He was so angry, so he got revenge.

Then he found a family. But they died too.

_Nobody cares for him anymore._

Skull shook these thoughts out of his head. He needed to figure out his next identity. Of course, he will miss Oodako, but he can't take the armoured octopus with him. It will make it too obvious who he is.

Time to forget this life and start a new one.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap how do people write stories with 100k+ words. I can barely write a chapter that reaches 1,000 words. I’m honestly amazed at those people.
> 
> So I've had this basically completed on fanfiction for like a week now and I forgot to update it on this website. Sorry about that. I won't be able to update it all right now though.
> 
> I don’t see Mammon as a boy or girl, so I use they/them for them.
> 
> Warning: mentions of suicide.
> 
> updated 11/8/16

After reading the diary, the ex-Arcobaleno found themselves becoming even more determined to find Skull and drill it into his head that _he deserves to live_. That he is a precious member of their family, no matter how they treated him in the past. He's their little brother.

They all felt ashamed that, despite being some of the best people in their respective fields, none of them noticed the pain their little brother was in, how much he was hurting. _How could they not have noticed?_

After arguing for a while over what they should do next, they decided to separate into two teams: one to find out about Skull's past ( _"Why does Skull want to die?"_ ) and one to find out where their cloud currently is ( _"We need to make sure he doesn't do something stupid."_ ).

Mammon and Verde decided to be the ones to find out about Skull's past while everybody else decided to look into where Skull went.

Before going their separate ways, they all agreed to meet up in a month.

* * *

 

The next month they met up at a Vongola base in Italy.

Mammon and Verde reported what they found first.

Verde began talking "After a lot of digging,"

"And a lot of money," Mammon interrupted.

Ignoring Mammon's grumbling, Verde continued, "We managed to find two things: a picture and video." He looked toward Mammon who pulled out a photo, passing it to the nearest person who happened to be Colonello.

Lal, Reborn, and Fon all gathered around Colonello to look at the picture. It was a black and white picture of a man who bore a remarkable resemblance to Skull, besides his hair obviously being a few shades darker and the many scars covering any skin that could be seen. He was holding a gun, seeming to be preparing to shoot somebody a distance away. They scanned over this man's face, eyeing every single one of the plentiful scars that could be seen.

It was a picture they had all seen at least once. It was the only picture ever captured of a hitman everyone called "Ghost Mist" due to his ability to never be seen and the trace of mist flames left at the scenes of the hits as his calling card. The picture was taken only a few months before they were cursed.

"Is this…" Colonello trailed off, examining the picture closer. "This is Skull, right?" he asked, pulling the picture away from his face and looking at and Verde and Mammon, who nodded. "But it can't be. This boy is heavily scared and Skull doesn't have any scars."

Fon whispered in horror, "He always wears makeup." It was silent for a few moments as this new information sank in. Their cloud has many scars, and he _somehow managed to hide it from them_. They are going to get explanations out of Skull when they find him.

"How did you figure out it was Skull?" Lal asked.

"Neither of us could find any information on anybody named Skull de Mort, so we ran one of Verde's special face scanners and this picture came up." Mammon explained. "At first we didn't think it was Skull until we…" Mammon's voice trailed off, their face taking a somewhat greenish tint.

"Until what?" Reborn demanded.

Verde, his face becoming slightly green as well, picked up where Mammon left off, "We found a video involving the person in the picture."

Lal raised an eyebrow. "Well, show us."

Verde hesitated for a second before pulling out a laptop and pulling up the video. He turned the laptop away from Mammon and himself, towards the other four. "I'm warning you right now, it's not a good video. At all."

The four nodded, signaling Verde to press play.

They first thing that they saw was an old, run-down alley. The video was not of the greatest quality, being from before the Arcobaleno were cursed.

They were greeted with various shouts of "Catch him!," "Kill him!," and "Bastard!" before the sound of gunshots.

They watched as a figure grew into view on the screen, and collapsed onto his knees. The figure was obviously shot and bleeding profusely.

Another figure appeared on the screen, pointing a gun at the kneeling figure. The kneeling man looked up, revealing his face, and due to the grainy image of the video, they could not make out any distinctive features besides a few scars.

The other man, the one with the gun, spoke. "Did you really think you could get away with killing the boss of the-" the video crackled, blocking off the man's next words. The audio came back in just as the man yelled "Answer me!"

The kneeling man opened his mouth and a voice, a voice so familiar, spit out, "Fuck you."

The man _holding the gun at their young cloud_ laughed. "You've got spunk, kid." He laughed for a few seconds, while Skull glared at him, before pulling himself together.

The temperature in the room rose at the man's next words. "To bad I have to kill you."

To their horror, the man pointed the gun at Skull's head and pulled the trigger, causing Skull to collapse to the ground, blood spilling out of the wound. He looked down at the body before emptying the clip into Skull's heart, and leaving.

They are used to seeing death, but when it's somebody they care about, _it's completely different._

Verde paused the video as the ex-Arcobaleno, the ones who hadn't seen the video before, lost control of their carefully controlled flames, making the room heat up to a near unbearable degree. They didn't manage to get their flames under control until the room was nearly completely destroyed. Mammon and Verde, who had already raged over the video, were watching as they destroyed the room.

Reborn, who recovered from his rage the quickest, said "That can't be Skull. The person in the video obviously died." Fon, Lal, and Colonello calmed down after hearing.

"True," Verde responded. "But watch what happens next." He fast-forwarded the video and pressed play as the others once again gathered around the laptop.

A huge burst of flames burst of Skull's body, completely consuming him. When the flames dispersed, Skull was sitting up, without his shirt on. The four drank in the sight of his body; _it was even more scared than his face_.

They watched as Skull looked down at his chest, where he was shot, and examine the scar that was left. They watched as Skull opened his mouth and let out such a heart-broken wail before the video cut off.

"How…" Fon started, unable to continue speaking.

Reborn finished for him. "How did he come back to life?"

Mammon shrugged. "We haven't figured that out. Even dying will flames are unable to do that."

"We'll just ask when we find him." Colonello stated. The others nodded in agreement.

"Speaking of that," Mammon started, "what did you guys found?"

"We found various promising leads." Lal reported.

"What are we waiting for?" Colonello asked impatiently. "Let's go find Skull."

* * *

 

_Skull has attempted to die many time over the years. He purposely put himself in danger's way. He jumped off the tallest buildings he could find. He hung himself. He shot himself. He once sank a boat he was on in the middle of the Pacific Ocean._

**_But he just can't die._ **

_Why does he have to be cursed to live while the others died? He doesn't deserve to live. The others deserved to live, not the cruel fate that befell them._

**_Why can't he just die?_ **

* * *

 

"Sebastian, please get me some tea." A white haired, sharp teethed, young boy asked.

Sebastian quietly left the room and headed toward the kitchen. After making the tea to the young master's satisfaction, he brought it back to the boy.

The boy barely took a sip of the tea before his brightly dressed, eccentric father entered the room.

"Sebastian!" the brightly dressed man half-yelled.

"Yes, Master Richard?"

"Follow me," Richard ordered, gesturing Sebastian to follow.

Sebastian followed the man until they reached a set of doors. Sebastian opened the door to allow his master to go through before walking through himself. Shutting the door behind them, Sebastian stood by it awaiting orders.

Richard let out a sudden laugh, "Don't be so stiff." Making a gesture toward the chair on the other end of the desk he was sitting at, Richard said, "Sit down." Once Sebastian sat down, Richard suddenly turned serious. "So…Sebastian, or should I call you Skull?" Richard watched his butler's reaction, who only stiffened at the use of his previous name. He opened his mouth to respond, but Richard cut him off before he could. "No use denying it. You seem to be causing quite a stir in the underworld."

Skull, letting part of his rouse drop away, simply asked the man "How am I causing a stir, sir?"

"The strongest people in the world are looking or you."

Skull couldn't conceal his confusion. "But why would they be doing that? They don't care about me."

Richard, with an amused glint in his eyes, said, "For people who don't care about you, they seem to be awfully worried about you. Maybe they care about you more than you think."

"But that's impossible, sir."

Richard eyed the seemingly young man in front of him. "Are you sure about that?"

"I-I…" Skull thought for a moment. Did they really care about him? They couldn't, they…

Richard, not allowing Skull to get too wrapped up in his thoughts, asked, "Do you care about them?"

Skull was surprised. "I-I…" Skull paused. "Yes I do." Skull is surprised to find that it is _true_. Somehow they wiggled past the numerous barriers surrounding his heart.

"Don't you think they feel the same way about you?"

"With all due respect sir," Skull started, "They never treated me like they cared about me before."

Richard gave a thoughtful look before explaining, "You have to remember that they grew up surrounded by violence. They probably never knew how to deal with somebody that they believed to be to be a civilian getting dragged into their world." He paused for a few moments to let that Skull process that. "And when you guys got cursed," at Skull's sharp look, Richard let out a short laugh. "Yes, I know about the curse. Anyways, when you got cursed, they most likely took out their pain on you who seemed to have the least to lose."

"But that doesn't mean they care about me. Plus it doesn't explain why they still bullied me"

"I doubt anybody could spend thirty years together and not care about each other. Maybe it was their unique way of showing affection toward you." He watched as conflicting emotions crossed his butler's face. "Now I'm not ordering you to do anything, but I want you to think about what we have talked about. You are always free to leave if you want to. You are dismissed."

Skull walked out of the room feeling more than a little conflicted.

He cared about them, which was dangerous.

They cared enough about him to search for him, which was even more dangerous.

If they were determined enough to search for him, they would never stop looking.

Skull came to a decision.

He can't let them find him because **_everyone who cares about him dies_**.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is 98% Skull’s past and 2% the main story. If you haven’t been able to tell yet, stuff in italics are flashbacks most of the time. 
> 
> What I was listening to when I wrote this: Undertale fansongs. No regrets.
> 
> rewritten chapter posted 11/8/16

_The boy opened his eyes._

_Everything was burning in purple flames._

_The man in the lab coat was on the other side of the room, burnt to a crisp._

_S painfully pulled himself up into a sitting position and bit down a scream as he locked down at himself. He was covered in wounds and blood. What exactly did the scientist do to him this time?_

_He watched in interest as the purple flame appeared around the worst of the wounds and healed them a bit._

_Remembering the body of his best friend, he pulled himself off the table and ran over to his friend. He noticed that the purple flame seemed to be burning everything but himself and his friend._

_S attempted to call the purple flame. It healed some of his wounds so maybe it would heal R's? The flame appeared on his hands and S held the flame over R's wounds, to no avail. S felt himself begin to cry when nothing happened. "I'm so sorry I couldn't keep my promise R. Sorrysorrysorrysorry. You deserved to live more than me. Why did I have to live while you had to die?" S collapsed over the body of his friend, sobbing. "I can't do this without you. I don't want to live without you."_

_As the purple flame burned everything around him, S attempted to pull himself together. HE knew that R wouldn't want him to wallow in sadness._

_Walking toward the door, he neared the charred body. He nearly choked when the smell of burnt flesh hit him._

_On a nearby desk, a file caught his eye. Walking over to the file, he opened it up and was immediately greeted by a picture of himself. He read over what the file said._

**_Subject S_ **

**_Age: 9_ **

**_Sex: Male_ **

**_Main Flame Type: Cloud_ **

**_Property: Propagation_ **

**_Secondary Flame Type: Mist_ **

**_Property: Illusions._ **

**_Experiments Information: Part of the Super Soldier experimentation_ **

**_Experiments Performed: Flame Enhancement, Pain Tolerance_ **

**_Experiment to be performed: Immortality_ **

**_Additional Information: Closest bond with Subject R. Considered to be one of the most successful experiments so far. Every experiment performed on him so far has been a success. Most likely to survive the immortality experiment._ **

_After looking through his file, he quickly skimmed through the one under it and determined that that file was R's. Grabbing both the files, S left the room._

_He wandered the hallways, passing more charred bodies, looking for the exit. Finding the exit, he walked through into what appears to be a desert. Picking a random direction, S began walking. Without looking him he willed the purple flame, his flame, to burn the building to the ground._

_After walking a while, S started feeling weak. He heard a voice call out from behind him, "Hey kid!" and before he could react, he collapsed._

_Strong arms picked him up before he completely lost consciousness._

* * *

 

_S has learned many things through his years in captivity._

_He had learned that the scientist where from a famglia called Estraneo. He learned to deal with high amounts of pain from the scientist. One of the only kind scientist taught him how to read and write, before she was caught and executed._

_From the various others who had been used for experiments, he learned about happiness and friendship. He also learned about loss when one by one they were killed in experiments._

* * *

 

_When S next woke up, it was to a feminine voice yelling "I think he is coming to!" and the sound of two pairs of footsteps running._

_When he managed to open his eyes it was to an unfamiliar ceiling._

_Looking around the room, he was instantly on guard as he noticed the three others in the room. He willed the flames to hand as a form of defense._

_A big, burly man held up his hand in a form of surrender. "We aren't going to hurt you, kid. Put your flames away."_

_S relaxed and allowed his flames to dissipate when he realized these people where nothing like the scientist._

_He examined the three people. The big, burly man was intimidating. There was a woman with long brown hair and warm green eyes. And then there was the kid, the one who made him realize these people weren't like the scientist. She was a girl who appeared to be about five with huge, brown, innocent eyes and long brown hair. S noted she looked distinctly Asian._

_Skull attempted to talk, but found his throat was too dry to talk. The woman handed him a glass of water, and S thankfully drank it and attempted to talk again. "Where am I?"_

_The woman responded, "You're at our house. My husband found you injured in the desert, so he took you home."_

_The little girl, unable to contain her excitement, interrupted S before he could respond. "Mommy said that you're gonna be my new big brother and that your name is S" the girl gave a bright, innocent smile. "I decided S is a stupid name so I decided to name you Stephen."_

_"Tara!" the woman scolded. "That's rude! Apologize!"_

_Before the girl could apologize, S quickly said, "It's fine. I like the name."_

_"Yay!" the girl exclaimed before throwing herself at S…Stephen. "I'm gonna call you Big Bro."_

_"Tara." The burly man spoke up. "Could you leave the room while we talk to… Stephen?"_

_"Ok!" the girl released Stephen before bounding out of the room, shutting the door behind her. After she left, Stephen felt himself go tense again._

_"I'm sorry about her," the woman smiled sheepishly. "She's a bit straightforward." The woman's attitude relaxed Stephen._

_"It's fine."_

_"Oh! I forgot to introduce us." She pointed to the burly man. "This big oaf is my husband, Sylvester. Don't be intimidated by him, he's a big sweetheart at heart." She sent a wink toward Stephen. "And I'm Margaret. The little girl who just left is our adopted daughter Tara."_

_"Nice to meet you," Stephen shyly responded._

_"Now I'm about to ask you a question. You don't have to answer if you don't want to." She held up the files he took form the lab. "Could you tell me what these files are talking about?"_

_Stephen found himself talking about what he went through. By the end of it, he and Margaret where both crying and Margaret was hugging him._

_"You poor child." Margaret chocked out._

_Sylvester surprised both of them by speaking up. "Do you want to stay with us?"_

_Stephen stared at him with wide eyes. "Re-Really?" he sobbed out. Sylvester gave a short nod. "Ye-Yes. I would like to stay with you guys very much."_

_"Good," Margaret said, still hugging him. "If you said no I would not have let you leave anyways."_

_"Now there are a few conditions while you stay here." Sylvester started._

_"Sylvester!" Margaret exclaimed._

_Sylvester continued on. "First, we are going to teach you how to better control your flames. When I found you, your flames were almost completely depleted." Stephen gave a brief nod in agreement. "Second, you are learning self-defense. Third, make sure you take good care of Tara."_

_Stephen quickly agreed before asking, "How do you guys know about flames?"_

_Margaret finally released him and answered, "Before we adopted Tara, we were a part of the mafia."_

_"Mafia?"_

_"Yeah, the mafia. Do you not know what the mafia is?" Stephen shook his head. "I guess we will need to tell you about that once you get better." She walked to the door and opened it, calling out, "Tara!"_

_The sound of tiny feet running filled the house before Tara appeared. "Can I play with Big Bro now?"_

_Margaret laughed. "Maybe after he gets a little better."_

* * *

 

_Time passed with his new family. For the first time for as long as he could remember, he was happy. He learned many things from the family. He learned how to control both his cloud and mist flames. He cared about this family with all his heart and he knew they cared about him. He eventually started calling Margaret and Sylvester "mom" and "dad"._

_About a year after he joined their household, he returned home from a shopping trip only to find the door wide open and the smell of copper in the air. Instantly on guard, he entered the house. He stifled a cry when the first thing that greeted him was Margaret wide eyed, dead with a bullet between her eyes. Searching the rest of the house, he found Sylvester in the same condition and a note that said "You belong to us S. no matter where you are, no matter where you go we will find you. We will take care of everyone who cares about you until you return to us. -Estraneo."_

_He went into Tara's room and heard the sound of muffled cries coming from under the bed. Looking under the bed, he was immediately assaulted with a sobbing mess._

_"Big-Big Bro," Tara managed to get out around sobs. "There were scary men and mommy told me to hide so I did and then I heard a lot of shouting and two loud bangs and-and-and…" she couldn't say anything else. He just hugged her until she managed to cry herself to sleep. He picked her up and left the house._

_He headed toward a house that Sylvester told him to go to if anything ever happened to him and Margaret. It was a house of their close friends._

_Knocking on the door, he left the sleeping form of Tara on their front porch with a note explaining that her parents were dead, and hurriedly to hide himself before they answered the door. He watched as a man opened the door and see Tara. He watched as the man read the note and gasped before picking up Tara and quickly bringing her into the house. Once he made sure Tara was safe, he left._

_Walking away, he made a vow not to get close to anybody. A vow not to let anybody care about him, a vow not to care about anybody._

_He disappeared into the darkness._

* * *

Skull wandered around Namimori dazed. Why did he dream about his past? Was the dream trying to tell him something?

After leaving his identity as a butler, Skull found himself in Namimori.

Skull doesn't understand why he is still running. The Estraneo Famiglia is completely destroyed, Mukuro Rokudo made sure of it. So why is he still running? He's safe. They can't hurt the people he cares about anymore. They're gone.

Why can't he stop running?

"Big Bro?" a familiar voice said from behind Skull.

"Tara?" Skull questioned before turning around.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> rewritten chapter posted 11/8/16

After turning around, Skull saw Tsuna's mother, Nana.

"Nana?" he asked, confused. Why was Nana calling him big bro? Unless…

Nana gave him a small, strained smile. "Follow me," she ordered.

Skull, in a state of shock, numbly followed after Nana until they reached the Sawada household, snapping Skull out of his stupor.

"Where's Tsuna?" Skull enquired.

"In Italy," Nana replied while unlocking the door. "Come on in, Skull. We have a lot to talk about." Skull followed her into the house and into the kitchen. "Would you like anything to drink?"

Skull nodded before realizing that Nana couldn't see him. "Yes please. Do you have any tea?"

Nana gestured for Skull to sit at the table, and Skull complied. Nana fiddled with her phone for a second before responding, "Of course. I make sure to keep Oolong tea in stock. If I recall correctly, that was always your favorite." She sent Skull a quick wink before gathering the materials to make the tea.

Uncomfortable with the silence, Skull blurted out the one question that was plaguing his mind, "Do you hate me?"

Nana set down the tea in front of Skull before sitting down on the opposite end of the table. "I could never hate you, Big Bro. Why would you think that?"

Skull could feel tears well up in his eyes. "Because it's my fault that mom and dad died. Because I abandoned you. Because I ruined your life." TH tears fell out of Skull's eyes until he was full blwn sobbing.

Nana quickly stood up and made her way to Skull, she engulfed him in a hug. "Shh…shh…it's alright." They sat like that for a while until Skull managed to gather himself somewhat. "Now why would you ever think that anything was your fault?"

Skull found himself spilling everything to Nana. He told her about the experiments, about why their parents died, about what happened after he left.

By the end of his story, he was sobbing again and could barely talk. The only reason he could tell Nana was crying was due to her shaking form. Nana pulled herself back far enough to look Skull in his eyes. He flinched at the amount of sadness and anger, the anger that was causing the temperature in the room to increase, the emotions that was causing her flames to go crazy, in her eyes. Skull averted his eyes.

"Skull look at me." Skull refused. "Skull look at me," She ordered again, harsher. Skull looked in her eyes only to see that they had softened considerably. "It wasn't your fault Skull. It wasn't your fault. It was the fault of that awful Estraneo Famglia. Do you understand me Skull? None of it was your fault." At Nana's words, Skull could feel what was shattered in him start to piece together. He nodded. Nana examined his eyes, and seemingly satisfied with what she saw, she unwrapped her arms from around Skull.

Nana stood up and grabbed the long forgotten mug of tea and brought it to the sink.

Skull, feeling a lot better , stared at Nana a minute before he began talking, "So Tar-" seeing Nana flinch he immediately switched tracks. "So Nana," she sent him a grateful smile," now that you know everything about me, why don't you tell me about yourself. I know very little about my little sis." Skull sent her a watery smile.

After talking for a couple hours, and a few shocking revelations about Nana, Nana invited Skull to stay the night. Skull was about to refuse, but looking in Nana's eyes he realized that she wouldn't take no for an answer, he gave in. Nana smiled so brightly when he agreed that it almost blinded him.

Lying in the bed, Skull stared at the ceiling. He felt better than he had in years. More pieces combined inside him.

Skull closed his eyes and fell into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

 

A few days later, after a couple of leads that turned out to be false, the ex-Arcobaleno arrived at a mansion belonging to a Richard Evans.

Once they arrived at the mansion, before they even rang the doorbell, the door was immediately flung open by a man dressed in bright colors who yelled, "You're late!"

"What?" Reborn asked.

"Come in, come in," the man, recognized to be the master of the house, beckoned them to enter.

Once they were in the sitting room, Lal asked, "Why did you say that we were late?"

Richard sized up the people in front of him, and seeming to like what he saw, answered, "My butler quit a few days ago."

"And where is he now, kora?" Colonello questioned.

"He left."

"What." Mammon deadpanned.

"I told him he could leave whenever he wanted, and he did. I have no idea where he went though."

Reborn tilted his hat in front of his eyes before standing up and saying, "Thank you for your time. We will be going now." The others followed his example and stood up.

Richard walked them to the door and let them out. "Make sure you take care of Skull when you find him. He is a good kid."

As the Arcobaleno walked away, they heard Richard call out, "If you find Skull, make sure to let him know to visit me in the future!"

Once the mansion was out of sight, Verde spoke up, "So what are we going to do now?"

Mammon was the one who responded, "We find out where Skull may have gone."

Before anybody could reply, Reborn's phone went off, signaling a text.

Reading the message on his phone, Reborn smirked before handing the phone to the others so they could read the message.

"I guess we are heading to Namimori." Fon said.

_Hey Reborn, this is Nana!~~~ I heard you and your friends are looking for Skull and I just wanted to let you know he is at my house. See you soon!~~~_

* * *

 

Skull didn't mean to stay for more than one night, but it was so nice here that he couldn't bring himself to leave.

It didn't help that everytime he tried to leave, Nana gave him puppy eyes that begged him to stay.

A few days later, Skull woke to the sound of loud voices coming from downstairs.

"Sorry for intruding."

"This is delicious, kora!"

They found him.

Skull pulled himself out of the bed. Forgetting to put his make-up on, Skull headed downstairs. When he was almost to the bottom of the stairs, he heard Nana say, "He should be down any minute."

Skull froze when he reached the kitchen. He examined the room. All the ex-Arcobaleno were crammed into the kitchen and were eating food Nana was making.

Reborn immediately noticed his presence. "Skull." Everyone in the room froze, except for Nana who had an air of obliviousness around her (which Skull now knew was fake). Skull examined them as they looked him over. Skull could easily read the emotions of all of them, for once, even Reborn' all appeared to be relieved and… worried?

"Oh!" Nana suddenly exclaimed. "I'm going to miss the sale!" running out the door, she called back, "Skull, your breakfast is on the counter! Be back in a bit!"

"Sit down." Reborn ordered. Skull immediately obeyed.

After a few tense moments, Colonello spoke up. "What happened to your face?" Skull realized he forgot to put on his makeup and immediately became more nervous.

Lal elbowed Colonello in the side.

Fon spoke up next. "I feel we have been unfair to you, Skull. Will you give us another chance?"

Skull nodded.

"That being said," Mammon started, "you owe us multiple explanations."

Everyone looked at Skull expectantly.

Skull eyed everyone. He trusted these people, they deserved to know. "I was an experiment when I was a child."

He had to stop talking at the mere anger the others were radiating. This anger they felt for him made Skull feel happy, made all the pieces come together into something that felt more whole than even before he ran away.

He continued telling his story, only leaving out the part of Tara being Nana.

When he was done telling his story, the room was practically suffocating from the intensity of their flames, and most of them where looking at him in barely concealed horror.

"So you left us… because you didn't want us to get hurt? Lal asked. "Because that is dumb. Did you really think that the Estraneo Famiglia could actually hurt us?"

"That was only part of the reason I left." Skull answered. "I was so sick of everything and I just wanted to die."

"Do you still want to die?" Verde asked.

Skull shook his head. "I want to be happy."

Before anybody could say anything else, Nana called out "I'm back!" She walked into the kitchen, took one look at Skull, and threw her arms around him. "I'm so glad, Big Bro!"

"Big Bro?!"


	7. Nana

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is about Nana's past and pov during Chapter 6 and is the end of the story.

She was never innocent nor oblivious. How could a child who was once sold into slavery be innocent? She just became a great actor, easily able to fake her innocence.

When daddy brought home an unconscious, purple-haired boy, she instantly declared him as her big brother. She never had a big brother before!

When he woke up, she could instantly tell how terrified and broken he was. She saw the purple flames covering his hands. Whatever he had experienced must have been horrible! In an effort to make him feel better, she said whatever came to her mind, like naming him Stephen. She was so relieved when that actually worked.

After adopting him into the family, the four of them lived in blissful happiness for a year. Her parents taught Stephen how to us those pretty flames, and she was disappointed to find out she couldn’t use the flames. She did join in on the fighting training though. Everything changed the day mama sent Stephen out for some groceries. That day, a bunch of men attacked the house.

Mama told her to run and hide and that she loved her. As she was running away, she heard the loud ‘bang’ of a gun.

She ran into daddy, who scooped her up in his eyes and ran her to her room. “Tara, never forget mama and I love you and Stephen. Tell Stephen that this isn’t his fault.” He kissed her forehead before setting her down beneath her bed before leaving the room. What felt like hours later, she heard him shout and another ‘bang.’

When the door opened and unfamiliar shoes entered the room, she started shivering. She didn’t want to be found! She was surprised when an indigo flame appeared. The man looked under the bed, and she held her breath hoping he wouldn’t find her. He looked right over her and growled before standing up. “Where the hell is that brat.” He left the room and she let out her breath.

When she could sense all the men leave the house, she allowed herself to cry. Soon after, she heard somebody else enter the house. When he entered his room, she saw the familiar shoes of her brother.

When she saw him, she launched herself at him, blubbering. She couldn’t stop herself from crying. She cried herself to sleep while her brother held her.

She forgot to tell him what daddy said.

When she woke up, it was to the familiar face of her uncle. She knew that she was at one of the safe houses mama and daddy made them memorize.

“Where is Big Bro?” she choked out.

Her uncle looked at her sadly. “He left this note.” He handed her the note. Tara took the note from him and read it.

Dear Uncle Richard,  
I’m sorry. This is all my fault. Mom and dad are dead because of me. So that Tara will stay safe, I decided to leave. Please take care of her.

Tara could only stare at the tearstained note as she began crying again. Her brother left her! Her brother left her!

Uncle Richard wrapped his arms around her. “You’re alright. Your brother will be alright.” He rocked her in an attempt to comfort her.

As she cried, she thought. Maybe if she wasn’t so weak she could have protected mama and daddy. Maybe brother wouldn’t be so sad. Maybe mama and daddy wouldn’t be dead.

She willed the tears to stop. Pulling herself out of her uncle’s hold, she stared right at him with a determined gaze and said, “Uncle Richard, I want to learn how to control my flame,” She willed her flames to come forward, somewhat enjoying his shocked look, “and how to better defend myself.”

Uncle Richard stared at her for a few minutes, examining her, before nodding. “We need to change your name though, and give you a civilian identity.”

She nodded sleepily, before falling back to sleep.

Her new name was Nana Arrivederci. She was raised by her uncle who taught her how to better fight and how to use her mist flames. Nana gained a hobby;cooking. She fooled everybody she met with her innocent and oblivious act.

Ten years later, a new hitman joined the mafia world. The hitman was a powerful Mist user, second only to the infamous Mammon. Nobody ever saw this hitman’s face, but everybody knew she was female. The hitman was known as The Chef due to her use of kitchen utensils in her hits.

The Chef was in the mafia world for four years before she mysterysly disappeared. Some said she was killed and some said she retired.

Meanwhile in Namimori, Japan, a now twenty Nana Arrivederci was working as a waitress under two of her closest friends at TakeSushi.

After working there for a few months, a blonde haired Italian came to the restaurant. When he asked her about her Italian last name she simply smiled and told him that she was raised in Italy, and they bonded over Italy. Nana and the blonde, Iemitsu Sawada, fell in love. Nana quit her job and moved in with him, eventually marrying him. She never told him about her past, and he never told her about his.

When Nana got pregnant two years later, Iemitsu started disappearing more often, telling her that his job was forcing him to leave. Fearing that he was cheating on her, Nana contacted some old friends and found out that he was actually the leader of the CEDEF, a branch of the Vongola famiglia. Not only that, he was a decedent of Vongola Primo. Nana felt like crying. It was just her luck! She left the mafia, only to be married to a big shot.

When Tsuna was born, Nana realized that Iemitsu didn’t want either of them to be involved with the mafia. She was extremely angered when he didn’t even bother to post bodyguards for his family. She and Tsuyoshi took care of any assassins that slipped passed the Hibari’s defense.

Tsuna grew up an extremely intelligent and graceful child. When Tsuna was five and first activated his flames, Nana could sense it from the kitchen. She was so proud of Tsuna and his extremely pure sky flames. When she felt the flames get abruptly turned off, Nana could barely restrain her anger.

**_How dare they do that to Tsuna._ **

It took everything she had to restrain herself from killing her husband and the Vongola Nono. When they both left, she hugged Tsuna and cried. Her poor baby. She found herself beginning to hate Iemitsu.

After they sealed his flames, Tsuna became what everybody called “No-good”. When everybody started calling him that, Nana sat him down and had a talk with him welling him that he was not no good and that if she ever called him that, she did not mean it.

Tsuna became one of the few people who knew that she wasn’t as oblivious as she acted.

When Tsuna was thirteen, Nana heard the news that all of Nono’s heirs had died and knew that they were going to make Tsuna an heir.

She was surprised when it turned out the famous hitman Reborn was the one that was going to teach her son. She expected Reborn to see through her oblivious act right away, but he never did. She remained hiding behind her obliviousness.

Various people attempted to kill Tsuna, and Nana restrained herself from wiping all those people out. Tsuna needed to fight them himself in order to get stronger.

She always wanted a large family, but Iemitsu was almost never home, so she settled for her small family. When Lambo and I-pin joined her family, she was overjoyed.

When Nana first laid eyes on Skull at Mafia Land, she instantly knew it was her Big Bro. She could recognize him anywhere, despite it being almost thirty years since she saw last saw him. She knew that she had changed a lot over the years so he wouldn’t recognize her. She was just happy he was still alive and not looking completely broken.

Whenever Tsuna could, he told her what was going on. She was never in the blue about what was going on. When she found out Iemitsu genuinely tried to kill Tsuna, **_her pride and joy_** , after the Arcobaleno trials were over, she was overwhelmed with hate or Iemitsu. Knowing that she couldn’t get away with killing him, she filed for divorce papers for when he finally decided to return.

A little over a year after Reborn first appeared in Tsuna’s life, Uncle Richard let her know that Skull was working for him. He also let her know that he was emotionally broken and running from the Arcobaleno, and let her know when he went missing.

She was surprised when she found him in Namimori. He looked so broken, so shattered, that she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Big Bro?” he responded with her old name, and she hid a flinch. He seemed to be completely shocked when he saw that it was her.

She led him to her house. She offered him his favorite drink, letting her own mask of oblivious drop.

She sent a text to Reborn letting him know that Ste… Skull was at her house. She knew that she would have a lot of explaining to do, but right then she was more worried about Skull.

She almost dropped the cup of tea when Skull asked her, “Do you hate me?”

She quickly set the tea in front of Skull before sitting across from him. She could never hate him. She told him that and asked him why he would ask that.

Skull started crying, and Nana immediately got up to comfort him. He told her all about his life, and Nana could feel her carefully controlled flames go wild with anger as she cried.

When Skull was done crying, she made sure to drill it into his head that none of it was his fault. As she spoke, she could see himself fix himself a tiny bit, but he was still too broken.

Where he began calling her Tara, she couldn’t hide her flinch. Tara no longer exist. Tara was a weak child. She was grateful when he called her Nana instead.

She soon found herself spilling everything that happened to her to him. She laughed at his expression when she told him that she used to be the hitman The Chef.

When it got late, she offered to let him stay the night. When he was about to refuse, she sent him a glare. There was no way she was going to let him leave when the people who could completely fix him are coming the next day.

The next day, she made sure to wake up extra early to prepare breakfast for the guest that were coming over.

When the ex-Arcobaleno got there, Reborn sent her a look saying that they were going to have a nice long talk later. She managed to bribe all of them to not wake up Skull with her breakfast.

When Skull came down, Nana noticed that Skull was a little less broken. She knew that in order to be completely fixed, she would have to leave them all so they could talk. She made up the excuse that she had to go shopping and left.

When she returned, Skull was no longer broken! She couldn’t contain herself from hugging him and exclaiming, “I’m so glad Big Bro!”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she immediately regretted it.

“Big Bro?!”

She let go of Skull and looked at the shocked expressions on their faces and couldn’t help but let out a little laugh. Her oblivious act was already destroyed, so why should she try and contain herself now?

Skull gave off a nervous laugh. “Yeah. She’s my little sister?” It came out as more of a question than a statement. Following that was a somewhat awkward silence as they stared from her to Skull.

Colonello spoke up first, “So she’s Tara.”

Nana flinched. “Please don’t call me that. I’m Nana now. But yes.”

There was silence again.

The front door opened, and Tsuna called out “Mama, I’m home!” and he entered the kitchen. Sensing the tense mood, he froze at the kitchen door.

“Tsuna sit down,” Reborn ordered. He looked over at Nana “Mama you have some explaining to do.” Nana laughed nervously while Tsuna looked confused. “Who are you exactly?”

Nana found herself explaining what had happened to her over the years, making sure to edit some things out.

The Arcobaleno, minus Skull, could only stare at the person who they believed to be a civilian until a few minutes before in shock. Surprisingly, Tsuna was the first one to speak up after she was done. “Ah. That explains a lot. So Skull is my uncle?”

Skull paled. “Please don’t call me uncle.”

Nana suddenly let out a bright smile. “Reborn, if you see my idiot husband, please tell him to sign these papers,” she handed Reborn the divorce papers.

Reborn let out an evil smirk while Tsuna, who peaked at the papers let out a loud “YES!”

A couple months later, the now single Nana’s house became the unofficial meeting spot for the ex-Arcobaleno.

The ex-Arcobaleno had a newfound respect for Skull, and though they still occasionally teased him, they made sure not to go overboard.

Both Nana and Skull where happier than either of them had been in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At some point i may go through and edit this story.


	8. extra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for those of you who have read this before 11/8/16, i have basically rewrote most of this story and made it a lot better in my opinion.
> 
> this chapter is short and crappy, just so you know.

At one of their “meetings” Colonello asked a question that had been plaguing many of their minds.

“Skull… how many times have you died?”

Skull, too focused on his cards to actually realize what he was being asked and to notice the sudden silence, absentmindedly answered, “456.”

Various things happened after he answered: Verde dropped his beaker, Mammon lost count of their money, Reborn’s fedora fell off, Colonello dropped his guns, Lal froze mid swing at Colonello, and Fon fell off his chair.

Skull looked up, confused at what happened. It took him a few seconds to realize what he just said and he said “Oh shit,” before trying to run out the door.

The door was blocked by Oodako, who was returned to him.

“Traitor.” Skull hissed at the octopus.

He turned around to face the others.

“Sit down.” Skull sat., preparing himself for the interrogation.

“Did you really die 456 times?”

“How many times did somebody kill you?”

“How does it feel to die?”

“How many times did you die on accident?”

“How have you died?”

“Have you died recently?”

“How many times have you tried to kill yourself?”

At the last question, the room went silent, giving Skull a chance to answer the questions. “Yes, I’ve really died that much. I’ve been murdered 143 times. As to how it feels to die,” Skull paused for a moment to think, “it depends on how you die, I guess. It usually feels like sleeping into a dreamless sleep. In accidents, I’ve died 163 times.”

Skull paused and examined the reactions of the others.. They were all listening intently to every word he said, something they never did before he broke.

He took a deep breath before continuing, “I’ve died many ways. I got ran over, drowned, crashed a car, and in one strange series of events, I got squished by a falling piano.” He let out a small chuckle at the memory before his face fell. “I’ve died so many ways I’ve lost track.”

“Recently, and by recent I mean in the last week, I’ve died once. And before you ask, something went wrong when was doing a stunt.” A couple people opened their mouths to speak, but Skull cut them off “No. I will not stop doing stunts. It’s who I am now.” They closed their mouths.

He hesitated to answer the last question. It was the one question he wished they would never ask. He doesn’t look any of the others sin the eyes as he says, “I-I’ve killed myself… 150 times.”

There was an awkward silence following the confession.

Attempting to break the awkward atmosphere, Skull says, “But I’m happy now. I won’t try to hurt myself on purpose again.”

“Alright then.” Fon says.

The Arcobaleno continue doing what they were doing before they began questioning Skull, seemingly to be completely unaffected.

To somebody who doesn’t know them, it would seem they were completely normal. But Skull knew them better than that. As they pretended that they were unaffected, he noticed that their movements were more robotic than earlier, more tense than earlier.

Skull gave a small smile.

He was being honest. He is happy now, here with the others. And, hopefully, he will be for a long time.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it’s two in the morning and I decided to write something to celebrate 200 favorites on fanfiction.net. I can barely believe that 200 people have even read my story, much less liked it enough to favorite it. I know I’m not the best writer out there (rereading this story actually made me wince), so I would like to thank everybody who actually read this story.
> 
> (I also decided to write this chapter because I hate how I ended the story the first time)
> 
> This is completely unedited.

Forty years have passed.

Reborn is now a retired hitman, and after getting a taste for teaching, is torturing/teaching the next generation the ways of the hitman.

Colonello and Lal finally got their stuff together and got together. Despite Lal violently denying they would have kids, they had three.

Verde never really changed. He remained a crazy scientist, with each experiment and invention growing wilder and wilder.

Fon left the Triads and moved to Japan so he could be closer to his family, the Hibaris, along with I-Pin. He runs a small martial arts studio.

Mammon remained with the Varia until it was time for the next generation to take over. After retiring, they opened a loaning business

Since his past had been revealed, Skull had lived happily. His past no longer weighed him down.

His body may have stopped aging one he reached 18, but over the years, his spirit had grown old. He felt the death he once craved creeping up on him.

He would (surprisingly) be the first to go, and he knew it. All those times he should have died we're finally catching up on him.

After much debating with himself, he decided not to tell anyone. He wanted to spare everyone the pain of knowing he was to die.

He acted like he usually did around everyone, trying to not to reveal that his time was coming, how much weaker he was getting. In his free time, he wrote a letter to each person he cared about explaining his decision.

One day he woke up barely able to move. He instantly knew that this was it, that he actually reached the end of his life.

His phone rang across the room, probably Reborn calling asking him why he was late to their weekly meet-up. Skull just weakly stared at the ceiling, unable to move, reminiscing on his life over the years as his vision grew dimmer.

Why was he still holding on? 

His phone kept ringing and beeping.

An indefinite amount of time passed before the Skull faintly heard a knock on his door.

“We should just break it down,” a familiar voice said before proceeding to do just that.

The ex-Arcobaleno flooded into the room, and upon seeing Skull lying pale and make-upless on the bed, immediately surrounded him. Skull felt a surge of relief wash over him.

“You really thought you hide something like this from us?” Mammon asked.

“We know you well enough to know when you’re hiding something from us.” Reborn said.

Colonello piped in, “We know you’re dying.”

Each person in the room laid a hand on Skull. On his arm, on his leg, on the the top of his head, anywhere they could.

So this is what Skull was waiting for. To be surrounded by his family with tears in their eyes.

Skull closed his eyes and breathed his last breath surrounded by the warmth of his loved ones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it turns out Skull wasn’t as immortal as everyone thought.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this!
> 
> If you see any of the numerous errors in this, or want to suggest ways to improve this story, or simply want to let me know what you think, please leave a review.
> 
> Also I'm planning on writing my zombie AUs again so if anybody has any suggestions for a story please message me.


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